Made a point of leaving the hostel bright and early this morning as we wanted a full day out. Had planned to go to the Montreal Observatory, which is the highest inclined tower in the world, with a 175metre elevation and a 45degree angle, in comparison to the tower of Pisa which has a 5degree incline, so it was quite an impressive architectual design.

We were unsure as to how much it would cost to go up to the top of the tower and I had a limit in mind so as not to pay anymore than $14, knowing that the Botanical gardens (which was what we also had planned to do today) was going to cost $16.

We were both really suprised to find that they had an offer going on for the Observatory, the Botanical gardens and also the Insectarium all for $26.50! We worked out that we couldn't afford to do all three before leaving today, so was great to find that we were able to see all three places!

We also noticed that they had student prices and I managed to wangle our "youth cards" through and was completely suprised that they accepted it and so we ended up paying $20 in total! So pleased with ourselves!

Once at the top of the tower we were able to see a clear view over Montreal city, which to be honest wasn't one of the best views I've seen as its not a pretty city on a grand scale, but I'm pleased we got to see it.

The Insectarium was a building full of dead and live insects and I spent most of my time in there watching the beetles, spiders, stick insects and scoprians, which were fascinating to watch.

The Botanical gardens were a let down as everything was either dead or covered over for protection from the cold; I suppose being winter we should have expected this , but we thought they would be an inside for tropics. The only interesting parts were the Chinese and Japanese gardens, which were beautiful.

It was absolutely freezing today (around -2) and I don't know what we'd done without our hats and earmuffs. Even with gloves on I was still unable to feel my fingertips! We didn't hang around the gardens for too long!